Service improvements

London Borough of Haringey

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 10 of 17 cases with service improvements

Export results (CSV)

Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for London Borough of Haringey as a CSV file.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 009 665)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 26-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Ms B complained about the Council’s delay in carrying out assessments of her mother’s needs for care and support and her finances which meant that the Council failed to pay her mother’s care home fees. On the evidence we have seen, there was fault. The Council has agreed to apologise, refund Mrs C and carry out a service improvement.

    Service improvements

    Remind relevant officers of the guidance regarding ordinary residence and the expectations in terms of timescales for assessments.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 009 249)

    Category: Housing Date: 21-Feb-2024

    Summary

    The Council was at fault for the time taken to move Ms X into suitable accommodation. This caused injustice as Ms X has remained in accommodation which was unsuitable for her. The Council agreed to apologise to Ms X and make a payment to recognise the time she spent in unsuitable accommodation.

    Service improvements

    Issue a reminder to staff that complaints about the condition and suitability of temporary accommodation should be signposted to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, not the Housing Ombudsman.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 005 402)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 08-Dec-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained about the Council’s delay in dealing with his housing benefit appeal against its decision of an alleged overpayment owed by Mr X. There was fault by the Council in how it dealt with Mr X’s housing benefit case. The Council was also at fault for its complaint handling and its poor communication with Mr X. This caused injustice to Mr X. The Council will take action to remedy the injustice caused.

    Service improvements

    •provide the Ombudsman with an action plan (with timescales) setting out how the Council will: a)resolve its ongoing technical / system issues b)reduce the current claimants’ appeal application backlogc)continue to deal with claimants’ appeal applications in a timely manner.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 005 297)

    Category: Adult care services Date: 18-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complains about the Council’s handling of her family’s request in January 2022 for support to move her brother, Mr Y, into a permanent residential placement. The Council was at fault for failing to make any meaningful progress with Mr Y’s case for over two years. The Council has agreed to apologise and make a payment to Mr Y’s family for significant uncertainty, distress and frustration caused. The Council will also review its procedure to ensure such delays to no recur.

    Service improvements

    The Council will review procedures to ensure the significant delays experienced by the service user's family in allocating a social worker, carrying out a review of the care and support plan and identifying a new permanent residential placement do not recur. The Council has agreed to explain to the Ombudsman the action it has taken to improve its practice in this area.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 004 816)

    Category: Housing Date: 02-Jan-2024

    Summary

    Mr B complained the Council did not properly support his family and his Autistic children when they were evicted. He also complained they were placed in bed and breakfast accommodation and they had to move between hotels frequently. We found there was fault by the Council and the provision of bed and breakfast accommodation for his family represented service failure. We recommend an apology, a payment and a review of the Council’s processes regarding temporary accommodation provision.

    Service improvements

    The Council should review how it takes account of its Equality Act duties when considering the suitability of temporary accommodation for homeless families. It should present a report to the Council’s Cabinet to show what has been considered as part of this review and what steps will be taken to ensure Equality Act duties are properly considered when making decisions about temporary accommodation in future.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 003 676)

    Category: Housing Date: 13-Nov-2023

    Summary

    The complainant, who I will refer to as Miss B, complained the Council delayed accepting the main housing duty when she and her child became homeless. She also complained the interim accommodation it gave them was unsuitable and it delayed moving them to new accommodation. Miss B said this has caused her stress and financial hardship, and negatively affected her health and her child’s education. We found the Council delayed deciding whether to accept the main housing duty and placed Miss B and her child in unsuitable bed and breakfast accommodation. The Council has agreed to make a payment to Miss B for the injustice caused and make service improvements.

    Service improvements

    Remind housing staff the duty to provide interim accommodation arises when the Council has ‘reason to believe’ an applicant is homeless and in priority need, not when it had confirmed this.Remind housing staff the relief duty lasts 56 days and at this point, the Council must decide if it owes homelessness applicants the main housing duty.Review its procurement policy to reduce the use of B&B accommodation and increase the supply of other types of temporary accommodation.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 002 189)

    Category: Housing Date: 08-Feb-2024

    Summary

    The Council did not contact Ms X’s landlord and did not tell Ms X it would rehouse her a few days before deciding she was not homeless. However, Hthe Council failed to consider relevant information when making this decision. It took too long to deal with Ms X’s request for a review and provided conflicting information about complaints. These faults caused Ms X avoidable uncertainty and distress. The Council has agreed to apologise, make a payment to Ms X, and act to improve its services.

    Service improvements

    The Council has agreed to remind relevant staff that when deciding whether accommodation is reasonable to continue occupying, officers can and should consider any relevant information or circumstances of the applicant.The Council has agreed to review the advice and information available to staff responsible for dealing with complaints to ensure they can identify matters not subject to statutory homelessness reviews and so avoid delaying investigating complaints.

  • London Borough of Haringey (23 000 560)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 21-Aug-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complains the Council has failed to provide a satisfactory assisted refuse collection as a reasonable adjustment. We consider there is fault by the Council. It has agreed our recommended remedy.

    Service improvements

    The Council will take steps together with its contractor to remind all waste collection operatives of their responsibilities when providing an assisted waste collection.The Council will provide details of its plan to improve the assisted waste collection service when monitoring identifies repeated failures to collect and return bins.

  • London Borough of Haringey (22 015 307)

    Category: Environment and regulation Date: 23-Jul-2023

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council failed to properly investigate his complaints of noise nuisance from his neighbours. Mr X says the Council did not resolve the issue or put anything in place to stop the noise recurring. There was no fault in the Council’s investigation into the noise. There was some fault in the Council’s communication with Mr X, but it has already apologised for any injustice this caused.

    Service improvements

    The Council will write to its environmental health officers and remind them of the need to inform complainants of noise nuisance what information is required to enable it to progress its investigation and how the Council intends to investigate their reports of statutory nuisance.The Council will write to its environmental health officers and remind them that, where it receives a report of statutory noise nuisance, it should assess the merits of each report and exercise discretion to investigate where it decides it is proportionate to do so, even if the threshold of three reports in a rolling one-month period is not met.The Council will consider when and how it could inform complainants of noise nuisance about their right to take private action in the magistrate’s court under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This could be once the Council has exhausted all other avenues of investigation itself but continues to receive reports of statutory noise nuisance.

  • London Borough of Haringey (22 015 080)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 13-Mar-2024

    Summary

    Miss X complained about the Council’s actions in recovering a housing benefit overpayment. There was fault in how the Council communicated with Miss X about the recovery action. It also delayed responding to Miss X’s complaint and failed to consider her request for reasonable adjustments. Although it did not affect the decision to recover the overpayment, fault by the Council caused Miss X avoidable distress, time, and trouble. The Council agreed to apologise, agree reasonable adjustments it will make for Miss X, and pay her a financial remedy. It will also share our decision with, and issue reminders to, relevant staff.

    Service improvements

    The Council agreed to share a copy of our final decision with all staff who work in its benefits, debt management, and complaints teams. It will remind them of the Council’s duties under the Equality Act 2010, including the reasonable adjustment duty.

LGO logogram

Review your privacy settings

Required cookies

These cookies enable the website to function properly. You can only disable these by changing your browser preferences, but this will affect how the website performs.

View required cookies

Analytical cookies

Google Analytics cookies help us improve the performance of the website by understanding how visitors use the site.
We recommend you set these 'ON'.

View analytical cookies

In using Google Analytics, we do not collect or store personal information that could identify you (for example your name or address). We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data. Google has developed a tool to help you opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Privacy settings